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kari lake
Returning to Draconian Abortion Bans Doesn’t Make America Great
Old laws like an 1864 Arizona statute are being dusted off in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June, 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade’s federal guarantee of the right to abortion.
Apr 13, 2024
“When exactly was America great?” is a common question often asked of Donald Trump loyalists sporting MAGA (Make America Great Again) hats. The Republican-dominated Arizona Supreme Court has an answer: 1864. Put aside that the nation was embroiled in a civil war, millions of people were brutally enslaved, native populations were being driven from their lands, and that women were more than a half century from having the right to vote. What apparently made America great in 1864 were extremist anti-abortion laws then in existence.
These old laws are being dusted off in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June, 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade’s federal guarantee of the right to abortion.
This week, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that an 1864 Arizona abortion ban, including in cases of rape or incest, still stands (with an exception to save the life of the pregnant person). The court stayed its enforcement for two weeks pending final appeals. If those fail, abortions will be criminalized in Arizona, with anyone performing one or even assisting someone in obtaining one facing up to five years in prison.
1864 was a pivotal year in U.S. history, as the tide shifted in the Civil War, leading to Union victory and the abolition of slavery the following year. Yes, the nation made faltering progress then, but it was by no means “great.”
First, some history: Arizona was a territory, not a state, in 1864, and was briefly contested during the Civil War. Confederates wanted it for its vast mineral wealth and for potential access to the Pacific Ocean. Union leaders sent in troops, winning decisive military control in 1862. President Abraham Lincoln appointed William Howell, a Michigan judge, to write Arizona’s laws, specifically including the banning of slavery (with the notorious exception, also included in the Constitution’s 13th Amendment, that prisoners can be subjected to forced labor) and the protection of fugitive slaves from capture and return to the South. Howell also included in the 461-page document, for reasons that are not entirely clear, a short section banning abortion.
While our society has progressed dramatically in the intervening 160 years, four Arizona Supreme Court justices, all appointed by the state’s previous Republican governor, Doug Ducey, ruled that the law is just fine as is.
In 2022, Arizona passed a 15-week abortion ban. That wasn’t extreme enough for some anti-abortion activists, who sought a court order reinstating the 1864 ban.
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, said after this week’s ruling, “I promise I will do everything in my power to protect our reproductive freedoms.”
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, also a Democrat, said, “No woman or doctor will be prosecuted under this draconian law.”
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito included the 1864 Arizona ban in a list of other state and territorial laws in his controversial Dobbs decision that overturned Roe. Several historians have pointed out that Alito’s list of laws dating from as far back as 1825 fails to provide any context and misses the point that medicinal abortion was a common and accepted practice throughout the colonial era and into the 19th century.
More importantly, the historical laws Alito relied on to overturn Roe completely ignore two centuries of progress.
“A majority, overwhelming majority, of the population wants abortion to be legal in all circumstances,” Amy Littlefield, abortion access correspondent at The Nation, said on the Democracy Now! news hour. “After Dobbs, that population is angry. They are motivated. They are voting. They are organizing. And Republicans and Democrats alike understand this.”
The impact of the Arizona abortion ban will be enormous. On a clinical level, thousands seeking abortions will be denied access, unless they have the resources to travel to another state.
Politically, the Arizona law could be Earth shattering. Arizona Abortion Access is a group collecting up to 1 million signatures—several times the number needed—to put an amendment on the Arizona ballot in November, to enshrine the right to an abortion in the state constitution.
Voters will flock to the polls to support this abortion access referendum. Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake understands this, and criticized the state Supreme Court decision this week, despite lauding the 1864 ban in 2022.
Likewise, former President Donald Trump said in a video statement that abortion laws should be left to the states, but then, two days later, said the Arizona Supreme Court went too far.
Arizona is a swing state, and Trump knows abortion has been a winning issue for Democrats since Roe was overturned. An abortion rights referendum will also be on the ballot in Florida, where a six-week ban is about to go into effect, putting that reliably red state back in play for President Joe Biden.
1864 was a pivotal year in U.S. history, as the tide shifted in the Civil War, leading to Union victory and the abolition of slavery the following year. Yes, the nation made faltering progress then, but it was by no means “great.” For true greatness, we can only look to the future.
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Why Trump Doesn't Get to Say Arizona 'Went Too Far' on Abortion
"In overturning Roe, Trump's Supreme Court directly invited Arizona's total ban," wrote columnist Robert Reich. "It's all Trump's doing."
Apr 10, 2024
One progressive lawmaker complained of "whiplash" Wednesday as presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump attempted to distance himself—and his own stated abortion policy proposals—from the Arizona Supreme Court's reinstatement of a 160-year-old abortion ban.
A day after the high court upheld a ban on abortion care from the moment of conception, with no exceptions for pregnancies that result from rape or incest, the former president agreed with a reporter that the state had gone "too far" and that abortion law in Arizona will "be straightened out."
As U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) noted, on Monday Trump clearly said he believes states should be empowered to determine their own abortion laws, as well as saying he is "proudly the person responsible" for the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022—clearing the way for state abortion bans.
"Now that Arizona turned the law back to 1864, he says it shouldn't be up to the states?" asked McGovern.
As President Joe Biden's reelection campaign pointed out, the Arizona Supreme Court cited Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the decision that overturned Roe, 22 times in its decision to reinstate the 1864 law.
"One person is responsible: Donald Trump," said the Biden campaign.
Bans like Arizona's, said Rahna Epting, executive director of MoveOn, are "the Republican plan."
"This is Donald Trump's plan," said Epting. "They can't run from it. They can't hide from it. And they can't lie to voters about it."
Trump—who lied at least 30,573 times while in office—claimed on Wednesday that he would not sign a national abortion ban if Congress sent one to his desk.
While Democratic politicians have called out the Republican this week, "mainstream outlets are misleadingly sanitizing the language of Donald Trump, this time by obscuring evidence that he would sign a national abortion ban," Media Matters for America researchers highlighted Tuesday.
Right-wing judges and legislators have moved full steam ahead with pushing for abortion bans and restrictions, even as it has become increasingly clear that forced pregnancy is unpopular with Americans.
Pew Research's latest survey in Arizona found that 49% of adults believe abortion care should be legal in most or all cases, while 46% said it should be illegal.
An AP-NORC poll found last year that 64% of adults believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. The survey was taken after several women in states with so-called "exceptions" to abortion bans suffered physical and mental health harms after being denied abortions despite health complications.
Like Trump, Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake tried Tuesday to denounce the state Supreme Court ruling, but several critics reminded the public that she spoke in favor of the 1864 law in 2022. Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.), whose district Biden won in 2020, quickly posted a statement on social media calling the decision a "disaster for women and providers."
Columnist and former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich said the ruling "should make Trump squirm," considering his stated support for each state's right to decide their own abortion policies and his "proud" ownership of the Dobbs ruling.
"In overturning Roe, Trump's Supreme Court directly invited Arizona's total ban," wrote Reich. "It's all Trump's doing. In 2016, during a debate with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Trump pledged to remake the U.S. Supreme Court with nominees who were against abortion... Later in that debate, Trump predicted his nominees would help deliver the end of Roe v. Wade."
"Trump's 'pro-life' justices did end Roe—therebyleaving it up to the states whether to ban abortion," he added. "So Arizona has now resurrected its 1864 law that did just that. Trump can't escape responsibility."
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Arizona Supreme Court Upholds 1864 Abortion Ban—But Voters Will Get 'Ultimate Say' in November
"Arizona is what happens when abortion policy is, as Donald Trump claims he wishes, left up to the states," said one columnist.
Apr 09, 2024
Reproductive justice campaigners in Arizona on Tuesday vowed to make sure voters "have the ultimate say" on abortion rights after the state Supreme Court upheld an 1864 ban that includes no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.
"This is a horrifying ruling that puts the lives and futures of countless Arizonans at risk," said Leah Greenberg, co-founder of progressive advocacy group Indivisible. "It's devastating and cruel—and we're fighting back."
The court ruled that since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the right-wing majority on the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022, no law exists to prevent Arizona from reinstating a measure passed in 1864—before Arizona was even a U.S. state.
The law outlaws abortion care from the moment of conception with exceptions only in cases of a pregnant person who faces life-threatening health impacts. Such "exceptions" have been shown to threaten the health, including reproductive health and future fertility, of pregnant people in several states since Roe was overturned in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling.
Under the Arizona law, doctors who are prosecuted for providing abortion care could face fines and 2-5 years in prison.
State Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, called the ruling "unconscionable and an affront to freedom."
"Today's decision to reimpose a law from a time when Arizona wasn't a state, the Civil War was raging, and women couldn't even vote will go down in history as a stain on our state," said Mayes. "This is far from the end of the debate on reproductive freedom, and I look forward to the people of Arizona having their say in the matter. And let me be completely clear, as long as I am attorney general, no woman or doctor will be prosecuted under this draconian law in this state."
Democratic organizer Amanda Litman noted that local prosecutors "have jurisdiction to decide whether or not to press charges on people seeking care under this ban."
Last week, organizers with Arizona for Abortion Access announced that they had collected more than the number of signatures needed to support placing a referendum on a constitutional amendment enshrining the right to abortion care on state ballots in November.
The ruling was handed down in Planned Parenthood v. Hazelrigg, a case that centered on an anti-abortion doctor's appeal of a December 2022 ruling which upheld the state's 15-week abortion ban. Dr. Eric Hazelrigg, who owns a chain of anti-abortion clinics in the state, urged the high court to instead reinstate the 1864 ban.
Planned Parenthood Arizona, Inc. said the "deplorable decision will send Arizona back nearly 150 years."
"This ruling will cause long-lasting, detrimental harms for our communities," said the group. "It strips Arizonans of their bodily autonomy and bans abortion in nearly all scenarios. And it does so following the troubling example of the U.S. Supreme Court in Dobbs: with judges ignoring long-settled precedent and principles of law to reach their preferred policy result."
Columnist Helaine Olen noted that the ruling was handed down a day after former President Donald Trump, now the Republican Party's presumptive 2024 presidential nominee, said states should be allowed to impose "whatever they decide" in terms of abortion restrictions and bans.
"Remember," said U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). "This is brought to you by Trump. He supports cruel bans like these, and he made them possible by overturning Roe."
The ruling was put on hold for 14 days, and advocates emphasized on Tuesday that abortion care is still legal in Arizona for the time being.
Since Roe was overturned, pro-forced pregnancy legislators in Wisconsin and Michigan have supported imposing abortion bans dating back to 1849 and 1931, respectively. A judge ruled last July in Wisconsin that the 19th-century law did not make abortion care illegal, and Michigan voters approved a constitutional amendment protection abortion rights, clearing the way for the 1931 law to be repealed.
Voters in Florida, where the state Supreme Court last week effectively approved a six-week abortion ban, will also vote on a constitutional amendment on abortion rights in November.
Since 2022, voters in states including Kansas and Kentucky have voted in favor of expanding, rather than restricting, access to abortion.
"With abortion on the ballot in November, anti-choice extremists will feel the power of pissed off women voters," said Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.). "No doubt about it."
Kari Lake, the Republican Senate candidate in Arizona, quickly attempted to distance herself from the 1864 ban, saying she was calling on the state Legislature to "come up with an immediate commonsense solution that Arizonans can support."
U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who is running against Lake, noted that just two years ago after Roe was overturned, the former TV newscaster and gubernatorial candidate said she was "incredibly thrilled that we are going to have a great law that's already on the books... It will prohibit abortion in Arizona except to save the life of a mother."
"This November," said Gallego, "Kari Lake will find out, yet again, that Arizonans have no interest in politicians who threaten their rights."
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